Watford forward Richarlison will face no action after his alleged dive against Arsenal was reviewed by the FA’s new diving panel.
The Brazilian was accused of conning the referee when he won a crucial penalty in the Hornet’s 2-1 victory on Saturday.
After the game, Arsene Wenger condemned the decision as ‘scandalous’ and ‘a creation of the referee’. But the FA’s panel disagreed, ruling that the player should face no retrospective action.
Richarlison has been cleared of diving after winning a Watford penalty against Arsenal
The 20-year-old, who joined Marco Silva’s side from Fluminese this summer, could have become the first player to be banned by the the FA’s new body.
He faced a two-match ban if the three-man panel — made up of a former referee, former manager and former player — found him unanimously guilty.
But they have instead concluded that Richarlison does not deserve to be punished after going down under a second-half challenge from Arsenal defender Hector Bellerin.
After Troy Deeney levelled the scores, Tom Cleverley won the game for Watford at the death
Per Mertesacker had put the Gunners in front at Vicarage Road on Saturday before Troy Deeney converted the penalty 20 minutes from time to level the scores.
Tom Cleverley then secured all three points for Silva’s side when he fired home in stoppage time to complete the comeback.
After the match Silva dismissed suggestions that his player had dived, arguing that he actually required more protection from referees.
On how he would react to a ban, Silva said: ‘Only to smile,… because you need to see again all the games from the Premier League this season, maybe you’ll find 10, 20 (incidents) like this one.’
